The Literary Magazine of the Osterhout Free Library
The Gingerbread Boy Turns 40
Jim Zola
Last night’s love carries me
back across the river.
I hurry the kids for school,
replace missing gumdrops,
straighten crooked faces.
Fox grumbles that our life
has grown stale.
Sometimes I hear Continue reading “Jim Zola, The Gingerbread Boy Turns 40”
Party City
Jonathan Owen May
Balloon flesh gleams through hot July windows,
winks in the light at all the passing goers-by.
The stoned employees slurp helium with shrill
glee, anxious for their next cigarette break. James
wants to wait for Stewart so they can make out.
Napkins and plates and table weights festooned
with the hero of a thousand and one faces, blue
and red for boys, funky pinks and mint for little
girls. No one rattles the maracas in the costume
aisle. The two night managers drink Continue reading “Jonathan Owen May, Spring•Summer 2017”
Sound Shadows
Marjon van Bruggen
Do you hear
the sound below the sound
of our footsteps?
The wiry black whine
of bluebottles sleeping
or the tiny sudden shock
as thorns emerge on the rose
subtle things,
I tiptoe in its shadows and listen—
the goldfish discussing
the coming contest
the delicate slurp
of drinking fireflies
and the dancing dust
in the center of sunflowers,
against the glint of granite. Continue reading “Marjon van Bruggen, Spring•Summer 2017”
Dead Man’s Hat
Alan Harris
I found this hat in the desert
the head it belonged to was nowhere in sight
I shook out the sand
and believe any bugs that had called it home
were thoroughly baked in the sun
along with the previous owner Continue reading “Alan Harris, Spring•Summer 2017”
Anthracite
A Trilogy
Marilyn Pocius Shelton
1.
I hoist my hems for the devilish descent
Down where no bone reaches save my pen
I chisel by inches with the image of a pick
Picture of an axe, auger seen in no one’s eyes
But mine
Grandpa, when you lay down in a chink
Of coal, did you see your mother’s eyes
Rimmed with tears as she waved good bye
Rooted in her Lithuanian soil?
2.
Settling Accounts
After you pay for your carbide Continue reading “Marilyn Pocius Shelton, Spring•Summer 2017”
Word Fountain 